David Letterman returning to 'Late Night' for its 40th anniversary

David Letterman returns for only the second time to the late-night talk show that made him a TV icon when he appears Tuesday on its latest iteration, "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

"The original version of the show 'Late Night' premiered on February 1, 1982," Meyers, 48, said Tuesday in an online promo. "The 40th anniversary is next Tuesday and to celebrate, my guest that evening will be the man who started it all: David Letterman will be here," at the show's Studio 8G in Rockefeller Center.

Four-time Emmy Award winner Letterman had starred in NBC's 1982-93 "Late Night with David Letterman," pushing the format's envelope with meta-stunts like rotating the camera 360 degrees through the course of one episode, or self-consciously tweaking late-night tropes with recurring segments such as "Stupid Pet Tricks." CBS poached him for its own "Late Show with David Letterman" from 1993 to 2015. "Late Night" continued, consecutively, with Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon and, since 2014, Meyers.

Noting that Adam Duritz of the band Counting Crows would be the musical guest, Meyers added, "Now that is a show that would make college-age Seth Meyers very happy. Also, current Seth Meyers is very happy about this."

Letterman, 74, has not commented publicly on the upcoming anniversary.

The venerable star previously appeared on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" on May 23, 2018. That year he began a Netflix streaming series, "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction," featuring in-depth interviews with entertainers, political figures and others. The most recent episodes dropped in October 2020.

He has made only a handful of TV talk-show appearances since leaving "Late Show," including on three episodes of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" between 2017 and now. A few months before his exit he was a guest on CBS' "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," produced by Letterman's company, Worldwide Pants.